UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster gives final thoughts before season opener at Hawaii 8/28

all right what's Wednesday Wednesday had another good padded practice U made it out clean no injuries um just excited for our guys you can tell that they're kind of getting a little bit more AP up ready to play another opponent so you know tomorrow this game satday desan what does that travel situation look like are you taking everybody or yeah cuz it's a noncon so everybody gets in trouble unless they're um their injuries prevents them from but also Carson Cox is Gordon I mean Carson Gordon a lot of Carson yeah I got a lot of Carson Carson steel Cox Gordon Carson Gordon is in Peru um yeah for the I think it's the Junior Olympics or triple triple how does his schedule work with you know him doing track compared to maybe somebody like John John who's obviously their their Sports in you know different part of the year um I don't think we'll have this situation again okay I think it was because of the Olympic so that the timing of it is right now so maybe in 28 again we should have that problem but he's going to jump here at UCLA and he's a you can't stop a a big time athlete again from competing so saw Kanye doing a little cross training with the safeties and nichels is that a position switch or is that just cross training just cross training just in case you know just how would you describe the feeling and anticipation I think into your first game at just just excited you know um I I would kind of compare to my first time playing varsity football like you're excited you have a little bit of butterflies you know but um that's it you know I haven't had that feel in a while I didn't get it as a freshman here and I didn't have it as a rookie Le so it's kind of feel cool to you know I it's like Christmas I'm just anticipating I'm ready for it to be there have you thought about what that first pregame fut is going to be like or is there a coach that um you know maybe even Sunday I'm SC um that's a good one though that's a good one pretty good one do your job no I told you out there exactly right but um it's just going to be mostly it's going to come from the heart that's that's me you know I got to speak just how I feel just come genu most uh one one wild surprise on the depth chart that was released uh you had uh Rico Flores above Logan Loya um can you talk about that decision Rico just came out had a really good spring and followed that up with a great Camp um Logan's rotating in with the starter so it's not like it's he's not a starter but he's rotating in and there's probably a good chance that he might get more snaps than some of the other guys so it's a it's a it's a it's a big rotation with four guys playing so you saw uh maybe look like g at the Georgio in the weit room is he okay yeah just um just got nicked up a little bit yesterday so kind of took ity too Ethan in his time here has really earned this role in this opportunity is that fact that sort of like everything he's been through and everything sticking sticking it out resonate with his teammates I mean you can just tell the way that they follow him the way they talk about him um and just like you said everybody has seen what he's been through and what he's gone through here and just to continue to be resilient and come out on top is just good so I'm excited looking forward to this first game and you we're from the same county soal months since you took the job until has it gone like youed it better I would say it's Prett gone as much as I expected um you know I just wanted to open it up we had what around 2,000 new recruits come through spring and posted a lot of guys on official you know we just wanted to open up let it be seen Let It Be know what we what we have to offer you know I think we did a good job with that and then you know we we didn't lose guys to the portal so they believe in what we're doing and you know that's all you you feel like your better position for your first year maybe compared to because you team shs first year where basically things were you you've got talent in the roster I think in better situation yeah I mean you could say that um but you know we still got to get out there play you know it's not a if you w off talent that would you know there would be certain teams that stay at the top all the time but you know we still got to get out there and play and I just think that these guys kind of have the right mentality going into this you know new coach you know I am a familiar face but they're approaching it different than I think that they do why do you think this feels more like game um I don't know cuz it's just a a feeling you know you you're excited to play varsity football the first time like when I was a sophomore I was excited for it but I was still nervous you know so um it might be just because you know anytime I was playing I knew I was in control you know I'm in control but they still have to play so I think that's the difference does it have for you first year head coach having a veteran returning quarterback to this program and also Justin is the up to maybe compared to 18 that's huge just having a veteran quarterback that can that's been here has played in the games um and a backup that has been too so it's just it's huge that's I didn't think about that you said that's huge you know just just being able to have a familiar face and know some of that you can trust keep the offense on track that's priority this season you're going up against Kawai who had five sacks last week what have you seen from the offensive line through the camp and how are you feeling um they've come together really well you proba about 8D you know and just building good camaraderie and just you up to trust each other so I think that the o line did a great job this fall and I know they're they're pretty much ready to go against somebody other these white jersey so I'm just looking forward so the guys getting out there just playing hard you know I want to see them play hard play with enthusiasm respect the game and you know play with discipline coach piggy backing off of that question what have you seen from Hawaii's defense on film they have a couple of young high high energetic high energy guys uh what are some of the key things you see from Hawaii's defense and and how to kind of prevent them you always got to neutralize the D line that's the first thing you got to do like you said they have a lot of guys that play with energy they have a safety that runs around likes the head um you know so these they're going to be fired up you know this is a big game for them you know they're looking forward to it and just hopefully you know my team gets out there and matches their intensity you know or they have to match our intensity but you know we're we're we're not looking past this and we know that this is a huge game for them so I just like my players know how bad I want to win this game so I think it kind of evens up I think everyone's you know pretty intrigued to see what this offense looks like in a game uh for the first time in an Ideal World how much of the Playbook do you hope to use and how much do you hope to you know be able to keep a secret for future weeks I mean as least as possible we can go get out of here without running all of the plays and that's awesome but you know it's football you just got to see how these guys show up and lineup but um I'm feel pretty pretty confident with offense and what they've been doing just how they the growth that they've to they've taken and made so I'm excited how do you feel defens two St return for yeah that's true too but um a familiar face in coach of K you know most of the defensive side of the ball was back so I think that's just that have commity what was it four years in a row you guys yeah four in a row exactly four years in a row just think that was good that they're able to have a coordin just to some of those guys still same terminology how much has it help with help doing a long trip granted it's 3 hours the other way maybe just in terms of distance what you're going to have to face this is actually perfect for us to do to what we're doing the season so I think it's just good the guys got to you know figure out how to travel um a whole different time zone and just finding ways to self starting yourself ready to play you know that's that's the thing we can only do so much as coaches but these guys got to figure out their routine on G going and hopefully they can carry that throughout for like pen state record would you go out on Thursday or we haven't decided yet but potentially potentially we're still not in school we're not in school on we're not school favorite football movie we're going to go with I mean any given Sunday's pretty high up there um yeah I'm go good choice I like that I was thinking of a running back movie but maybe Gail sers movie I don't know the name of there you go wait what did you say I missed it uh the ga s's movie oh okay how about The Longest Yard you had the longest yard uh when you were against the Eagles so we'll go with my movie as the longest yard and not Adam sand Sunday is there a coach favorite coach in terms of pregame approaches with speeches or kind of that game everything um I'm not sure somebody that I was with uh coary has some good speeches when I was in s Frank you know just cuz he's intense and you know he's act player so he knows kind of how to push your but coach Fox always got us ready to go um wasn't it wasn't like just a speech that he's just given us but he always had us prepared I just want to make sure that they're prepared in the right situation in the right mind frame and you know I have some gy thank you